


Iris Is A Matchmaking Goddess

by fairywriter



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry and Iris are besties, Multi, Pre-Slash, Slash, more pairings likely to come, so are Cisco and Caitlin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-23 06:17:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6107688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairywriter/pseuds/fairywriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry's worried about asking Cisco out. Cisco is worried that he's misinterpreting the looks Barry has been giving him. Caitlin wants to be left alone to mope. And Iris is tired of her friends' being oblivious and difficult. It must be time for a little matchmaking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Iris like to tease poor Barry

"You could try being a little less discreet" Iris offered, " speaking from experience here when I say that it's easy to miss your version of doe eyes since you make them at almost everyone".

Barry spluttered and choked on his coffee "Iris!".

She shrugged innocently, her eyes crinkling as she grinned at her best friend from across the small table in Jitters.

"I do not make doe eyes at everyone" asserted Barry indignantly after he caught his breath.

"You kind of do" Iris said, grinning even more as Barry groaned and buried his head in his arms.

"Relax Bar, it's totally adorable" she paused slightly "I know for a fact because I polled Linda, Caitlin, and Felicity, and they all agreed….. totally adorable".

Barry raised his head and stared at Iris in horror.

"You polled them???" he asked incredulously, his voice rising a bit at the end.

"Yep!" she popped the "p" and leaned closer to Barry.

"Felicity wanted to get Oliver and Diggle involved too, but I haven't heard back from her about their opinions".

Barry was turning an interesting shade of purple and Iris decided she'd better take pity on him.

"I'm kidding Barry!" she giggled "you should really see your face right now Bar".

Barry slumped down in his chair in relief. 

"But back to your current problem…" Iris trailed off.

"Forget it, I'll figure it out on my own" Barry said, a bit sullen.

"Nonsense, what are friends for?" Iris said.

"Apparently for freaking me out" Barry grumbled slightly but he grinned at the end to let Iris know he wasn't really upset.

"Okay, so I think part of your problem is that, even though you've known you're bi since our first year of high school, you've never actually dated a guy" Iris offered, turning serious.

Barry nodded "yeah, that's probably part of it, I'm not sure what to say or how to say it because it seems different than asking a girl out, not that I'm very good at that either".

"Well…." Iris considered her next words carefully "you remember the first time I went out with my college girlfriend? And I called you in a panic because I was so afraid of screwing it up".

Barry raised one eyebrow and made a noise of agreement.

"Well I was hiding in the bathroom at the restaurant, not thinking that my date might easily walk in" Iris shook her head and smiled fondly "of course she did and she caught the tail end of our conversation. I was so embarrassed but she talked me down and pointed out that everyone gets nervous about first dates, she was terrified to ask me out because she thought I was straight, but she did it anyway because she thought I was worth any bit of embarrassment. And you know, we were really happy while it lasted. My point is, you can't worry so much about someone saying no because if you miss your chance you may miss something wonderful".

Barry looked a bit like a puppy that had been kicked.

"I didn't even think to wonder whether he was interested in guys or not" he said morosely.

Iris rolled her eyes in exasperation "that is all you took from my little story, did you not hear me say what the actual point was?".

Barry shook his head "it'll be bad enough if he's not interested in me, but not interested in guys at all? I don't want this to mess up our friendship".

Iris was pretty sure her eyes were going to stick in the back of her head if she rolled them that hard again.

"Barry" she started sweetly her voice getting more annoyed as she went "this is Cisco we're talking about, it may be awkward for a couple of days if he says no, but it's not going to ruin your friendship. He's too nice a guy for that". She eyed her friend as he looked hopefully at her and visibly restrained herself from rolling her eyes again.

"How about this, I invite Cisco and Caitlin to go out drinking with me tonight, and at the bar I'll casually bring up that I'm pan, see what they say" Iris suggested, pulling out her phone and texting them.

"You didn't give me a chance to say yes or no" Barry pointed out.

"Sorry Allen, you were just too slow" she teased "besides, I want you to be happy and I like Cisco, so does Dad for that matter, I swear he'd adopt him and Caitlin both if he could".

Barry smiled at that.

"See, there's my best friend's famous smile" Iris grinned back at him before getting back to business.

"If I get the feeling that Cisco would like a cute young man asking him out, I'll text you and you can come over".

"Thanks Iris, you're the best" said Barry.

Iris dipped her head in acknowledgement then grinned wickedly.

"Who knows, if tonight goes well…" she trailed off, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Barry blushed.

Iris giggled.


	2. Things Get a Little Complicated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here there be spoilers for the episodes Escape from Earth-2 & King Shark.

Caitlin was very glad that no one had been around when she'd received the text from Iris, she hadn't laughed so hard in months and her reaction would've been hard to explain. She typed a quick "I'm in" and sent it to her journalist friend. 

'It's about time we did something' she thought as she moved confidently around her work space at S.T.A.R labs, her thoughts on her friends and her hands working on autopilot. Normally she wouldn't advocate getting involved in a friend's love life, but when it was two friends who were both being ridiculously oblivious… well, Caitlin's patience had limits. And it was hard to see both of her best friends unhappy, they'd both been through so much, was it really too much to ask for them to have this one thing? Her mouth twisted in a painful grimace, obviously it was too much for her to ask for herself. She shook her head as though that would get rid of the dark thought but instead memories of Ronnie and Jay began swirling around her head and her hands began to shake slightly, the image of Jay's face in the last second she'd seen him was imprinted vividly in her mind, how do you shake an image like that?

"Caitlin?" came Cisco's worried voice from behind her.

Caitlin's body relaxed and her mind cleared.

'Right, that's how you do it' she thought as she turned around and gave Cisco a weary smile. 

"I'm fine Cisco" she said, not bothering to hide that she hadn't been just a few seconds ago. The two of them had fallen into the habit of taking care of each other when the other was hurting and she knew she couldn't really fool him, not unless he was way off his game today.

Cisco seemed to be debating whether to question her further or get to whatever had actually brought him here. He must've decided on the latter because he grinned at her and held up his cell phone.

"I got a text from Iris" he said excitedly "we're going out for drinks tonight, you're coming with right?".

"Sure, we haven't all been out in a while" Caitlin turned back to her work as Cisco pulled a chair over and sat down next to the table she was working at.

"Iris didn't say anything about Barry coming, do you think he has other plans?" Cisco pulled a bag of licorice sticks from one of Caitlin's drawers and offered her one before taking three for himself.

Caitlin shrugged "I doubt it, unless he has to work late".

Then she glared at Cisco "is there some reason you're hiding candy in my desk again?".

"Jesse steals it if I leave it on my worktable! Or really, anywhere else. That girl has a serious sweet tooth".

Caitlin shook her head "you're hardly one to talk about having a sweet tooth. But I guess you can use the drawer I keep pencils in".

Cisco grinned at her "Thanks Caitlin, you're the best".

"Yes, and don't you forget it" she shot a smile at him.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sight of Caitlin tense and shaking wasn't new to Cisco but he'd never quite figured out how to deal with it, Caitlin wasn't the type to open up very often and after their last serious talk Cisco knew why, and he understood, he really did, but he hated not knowing how to help her.  
It had been a couple hours since he'd wandered back to his own work space and started playing around with random parts. He wanted to make her something to put a smile on her face but he wasn't sure what and he huffed in frustration as he finally gave up.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Barry.

"Hey Cisco!" Barry's cheerful voice made Cisco smile, Caitlin wasn't the only friend he worried about, Barry seemed to grow more upbeat every day, as though he was confident that Team Flash would soon solve all of their problems and Zoom would be defeated. Sadly, Cisco was pretty sure Barry was acting most of the time, trying to keep everyone's spirits up, but the speedster really did seem to brighten up whenever he was talking to Cisco and Cisco took great pride in that.

"Hi Barry! Iris invited Caitlin and me out tonight, you're coming right?" Cisco asked, trying not to sound too eager, he'd finally admitted to himself that he had a crush on Barry but he wasn't about to admit it to anyone else.

"Um, probably?" Barry replied, "I've got some work that might keep me late but I'll try".

"Come on Barry, you have to come!" Cisco declared, "it won't be as much fun without you!".

Barry laughed "okay Cisco, I'll do my best to finish up thes…." a loud rumble from the phone drowned out Barry's words, a pained cry followed by silence scared Cisco.

"Barry? Barry?!!" he yelled into the phone, but all he heard in return was what sounded like a series of explosions. Cisco's eyes widened and he whispered Barry's name as a shrieking sound seemed to fill the whole room, he wasn't sure if it came from the phone or was in his head but it was all he could hear and his vision went black as he fell sideways onto the floor


End file.
